GB2150900A

GB2150900A - Combined road and rail transport assembly

Info

Publication number: GB2150900A
Application number: GB08425714A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Bernd Thiele; Willi Back
Original assignee: ACKERMANN FRUEHAUF
Current assignee: ACKERMANN FRUEHAUF
Priority date: 1983-12-09
Filing date: 1984-10-11
Publication date: 1985-07-10
Also published as: GB8425714D0; AU584598B2; IT1179468B; AU3763085A; NL8403153A; DE3344513A1; FR2556288A1; IT8449049A0; BE901227A; IT8449049A1; GB2150900B

Abstract

Trailers 2 adapted to be towed on the road by conventional tractor units are mounted for rail transport on bogies, each bogie having a chassis 5 with two vertically movable coupling members comprising pins that engage with openings 9 near the ends of the trailers. Each bogie supports the adjacent ends of two trailers. Extendable supports 14 with rail wheels 15 may be provided to facilitate mounting of the trailers on the bogies without the aid of extraneous lifting apparatus. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Combined road and rail transport assembly This invention relates to a combined road and rail transport assembly which enables road trailer units or other transport containers to be transported on the road by conventional road tractor units or other road vehicles and to be assembled into goods trains to be pulled by locomotives for rail transport.

Such transport assemblies are known. They are used predominantly to provide the advantages of road transport for short ranges and the advantages of rail transport for longer distances. This is done conventionally in two different ways. In one way, complete train loads of road trailer units or transport containers are transferred by road vehicles which are driven onto rail wagons, which require only a transversable bridge between each two wagons to enable the units to be loaded and blocking devices for holding the units in position on the wagons. This comparatively low additional cost is opposed, however, by the considerable disadvantage that during rail transport the road transport motive unit, for example a road tractor unit, or other motor vehicle, is not available for any other use.

This disadvantage can be avoided if the load carrier alone deprived of its wheel system, for example a transport container or an interchangeable road trailer unit superstructure, is transferred and transported by rail. This, however, calls for vertical lifting and transference of the trailer units or containers and requires complicated crane installations, which furthermore are frequently not available at small transfer stations or the capacity of which is inadequate, especially during periods of peak transport flow.

In order to overcome these problems a combined road and rail transport system is disclosed in German published Application No. 1,922,343, which makes use of its own lifting equipment for transferring a road trailer unit superstructure from the road to a rail wagon. This system is, however, extremely expensive because every road trailer unit chassis must be equipped with transfer lifting equipment, for example in the form of a lifting bellows which extends beyond the perimeter of the removable superstructure and load supports of outriggers which can be heavily loaded. This not only entails considerable cost but also is achieved at the expense of available loading volume.

A further disadvantage, common to all existing combined road and rail transport systems, consists in the small utilization of the loading area of the rail wagons.

The object of the present invention therefore is to overcome the disadvantages of the existing combined road and rail transport systems and in particular to provide an assembly which gives rise to a system which requires few personnel for its operation, which does not need any very great changes to the road vehicle, which assures high utilization of the loading volume of the transport, and which can be integrated without difficulty into the existing rail and non-rail transport systems.

According to this invention, a combined road and rail transport assembly includes two load-carrying trailers or other containers which are adapted to be towed or otherwise transported on the road by a road vehicle, a rail bogie and means mounting adjacent ends of the containers on the bogie end to end, whereby a series of the containers can be assembled on a rail track to form a goods train.

With a number of these assemblies a whole goods train can be formed consisting only of a conventional locomotive and of the containers coupled together by means of a rail bogie between each pair of adjacent containers without the participation in the train of the road vehicle. Since the spacing of the containers may be approximately equal to the standard spacing between two conventional goods wagons, high transport volume results, relative to the length of train.

For the transfer to the train, for example, of a road trailer unit, no special transfer devices or cranes are necessary. Instead, the trailer unit simply needs to have its rear brought onto a bogie and then after the supports of the front of the trailer, which are in any case provided, have been extended, the road tractor unit has to be disconnected in the usual way from the trailer unit and can then be driven away. A further rail bogie is then moved on the rail track underneath the front part of the trailer unit chassis.

The rail bogies are preferably each provided with two lifting couplings, which are advantageously pneumatically operated and each of which fits in a seating or opening provided in the underside of the container. The lifting couplings may each consist of a lifting rocker, which is actuated by a compressed air bellows and is capable of being locked in position. Each rocker may have a pivot pin, which engages in a corresponding opening or socket in the chassis of the container.

In order to facilitate alignment of the container with the rail bogie, the container preferably has at its forward part, extensible supports provided with rail wheels for resting on the rails which carry the bogie and are preferably flush with the surface of the road on which the container is carried to the rail track.

The container may possess, as an additional feature, continuous brake piping for operating the brakes of the rail bogies. This piping can be coupled to the brake lines of the rail bogies. In addition, the rail bogie and the container chassis may be equipped with stops, which facilitate their correct mutual positioning in horizontal directions as the container is assembled with the bogie to enable the bogie coupling to be engaged with the container seating.

An example of an assembly in accordance with the invention is illustrated highly diagrammatically in the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a side view of the assembly on a rail track; Figure 2 is a side view of two trailer units connected by a rail bogie and of one of the trailer units by itself; Figure 3 is a side view of part of the rail bogie of Figure 2, to a larger scale; and Figure 4 is a plan illustrating the sequence of operations in transferring trailer units from road to rail using an assembly in accordance with the invention.

The assembly according to this invention consists, for example, basically of a road tractor unit 1, trailer units 2, a rail locomotive 3 and the rail bogies 4 connecting the individual trailer l- units 2 to each other. Each bogie has a chassis 5 and two conventional pairs of wheels 6 and also two lifting rockers 8 each actuated by a compressed air bellows 7. The rockers 8 each include a pivot pin 11 which, in use, engages in an opening 9 in a chassis 10 of a trailer unit 2. The bogie chassis 5 has the usual equipment of a rail vehicle, such as buffers, brakes and couplings and also a compressed air reservoir for actuating the lifting rockers even when there are no brake lines connected between one bogie and the next.

On each trailer unit chassis 10, there are brake lines 13, which can be coupled with brake lines, not illustrated, on the rail bogies 4. In addition, two extensible supports 14 with rail wheels 15 for running on rails 16, which may be level with a road surface in the loading area, are provided on the trailer chassis 10.

In order to enable the trailer unit comprising road wheels 17 to be raised, a chain band may be connected between the axles of the wheels 17 and the trailer unit chassis 10, this band being tightened by the lifting rocker 8 so that it pulls the wheel assembly up against the chassis 10.

During the loading of the trailer units, several units are first usually parked with their supports 14 extended, until a sufficient number for making up a train are available. Then the individual trailer units 2 are picked up by a road tractor unit 1 and are driven backwards into a region over the rails 16, until the rear of the trailer unit is situated correctly positioned above a lifting rocker 8 of a rail-mounted bogie 4 and stops, not shown, on the trailer unit chassis 10 and on the rail-mounted bogie 4 meet each other. At this time, the rocker 8 is lowered.

This is readily possible because where a conven tional bogie chassis 5 and pairs of wheels 6 are used, a sufficient distance is available between the rail-mounted bogie and the rear of the trailer unit.

The supports 14 are then extended, to move the rail wheels 15 on to the rails 16 and raise the front of the trailer unit and while wheels 17 remain on the ground, so that the tractor unit 1 can be uncou pled and driven away. The locomotive 3 then brings another rail bogie 4 into the correct position under the forward part of the trailer unit 2 which is resting on its supports 14 and rail wheels 15, and its road wheels 17. When the compressed air bel lows 7 of the two rail bogies 4 are actuated under the forward part and the rear part of the trailer unit 2, the lifting rockers 8 pivot upwards, until their pi vot pins 11 engage into the openings 9 in the for ward and rear parts of the trailer chassis 10 and lift the trailer unit until it has the necessary clearance from the ground and rails of its rail wheels 15 and road wheels 17.This clearance may be, for example, 200 mm.

The forward half of the last introduced rail bogie 4 is now free to receive the rear of a further trailer unit 2, which has already been brought by the tractor unit 1 into a position adjacent the rails. In this manner, progressively, by means of only one road tractor unit a train assembly is formed, the large transport volume of which results from the short end spacing between the individual trailer units of, for example 300 mm. At the destination, the load carriers are removed from the train in the above described manner but in the reverse sequence of operations and finally are transported away by the usual road tractor units.

In a similar manner to road trailer units, other load carriers such as containers and interchangea bie vehicle bodies can be transferred, if the relevant load carriers are each equipped at front and rear with a seating corresponding to the pivot pin opening 9 and possess the necessary clearance at the rear in relation to the rail-mounted bogie. The transport assembly of this invention also permits load carriers of different types to be assembled to form a goods train.

Claims

1. A combined road and rail transport assembly including two load-carrying trailers or other containers which are adapted to be towed or otherwise transported on the road by a road vehicle, a rail bogie and means mounting adjacent ends of the containers on the bogie end to end, whereby a series of the containers can be assembled on a rail track to form a goods train.

2. An assembly according to Claim 1, in which the bogie has two lifting couplings and each container has a seating at each end, each seating being adapted to receive a coupling to mount the container on the bogie.

3. An assembly according to Claim 2, in which the lifting couplings are actuated by compressed air bellows.

4. An assembly according to Claim 2 or Claim 3, in which the lifting couplings each consist of a lifting rocker which can be locked in position.

5. An assembly according to Claim 4, in which each lifting rocker has a pivot pin engaging in an opening, which forms the seating, in the container.

6. An assembly according to any one of Claims 1 to 5, in which the container is provided with extensible supports carrying rail wheels.

7. An assembly according to any one of Claims 1 to 6, in which each container has brake piping for connection to brake piping of the bogie.

8. An assembly according to any one of the preceding Claims, in which the bogie and each container has stops, the stops on each container co-acting with the stops on the bogie to enable the container to be correctly located on the bogie as the assembly is assembled.

9. An assembly according to Claim 1, substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawings.